As for you Mr. Campbell, I agree and/or respect all of what you’ve written, with the exception that I think you are too quick to dismiss the universe of characters that Mr. Smith has constantly reemployed since his first film. I, personally, love the Jay and Silent Bob characters and I think any true follower of Smith’s movies would necessarily agree. and I would also argue that you underestimate the appeal of his- for lack of a better term- crude humor. For Smith to abandon the dick and fart jokes that made him who he is would be for him to not be Kevin Smith at all. Maybe some more dick and fart jokes would have saved that flaming fart of a film that is “jersey girl.”

Back to you Mr. Spoon. Twists are most certainly the problem from Mr. Shyamalan. And to say that the Village is his only good film is solely your opinion and certainly not a universally held one. I would go so far as to say that millions of people would disagree with you on that one. You also seem to forget that Shyamalan was once a hired gun when I came to screen writing.

Twists are not really Shyamalan’s problem. His two most critically derided films are “The Happening” and “Lady in the Water”, and neither of those have twists*. He’s just a lazy, flawed writer in general.

And “Unbreakable”, a hilariously stupid film, has what’s probably the worst of all his twists, because it turns Samuel Jackson’s character into a mongoloid.

UNBREAKABLE SPOILERS

“Well, my bones are weak, that *must* mean there are people out there with super strong bones (and organs and skin, since Willis doesn’t have a scratch on him). How can I find them? Well, I’ll just start producing random disasters here in Philadelphia. That oughta do it.”

END OF SPOILERS

Also, I fail to see the problem with the twists in “The Village”, his only good movie. (Other than the fact that Night needlessly messes with the chronology so the first twist comes a little later in the narrative.) They make sense and are thematically relevant.

*THE HAPPENING SPOILERS

Nature ends the attack on Philadelphia as Marky Mark hugs his wife. Is that a twist?